1 question shines a light on your life purpose.
A few years ago I went to an entrepreneur conference. The energy was vibrant and amazing. The guest keynote speaker was Danielle Laporte (www.daniellelaporte.com). She was the main reason I went as I wanted to hear her motivational inspiration and insight. I was not disappointed; in fact it changed my life in one moment. She didn’t do the standard rehearsed “speech” like you’d expect. She opened up the floor to questions and her entire time on stage was more like an intimate talk among friends. One budding entrepreneur expressed her frustration at trying to decide what to do with her life. Basically, she had many great ideas and even more desires and dreams. “But where to start?” She couldn’t nail down the one idea to get started… the one that made sense… and that would define her. Danielle’s response was simple, thoughtful and left the room silent….
“What do people thank you for?”
Think about this. It’s brilliant. If you need more meat to chew on, ask yourself these supplementary questions: What do you do, right now, today, or what have you done in the past? What do you do willingly and would likely do for free, because you love it so much? What comes so easy to you, that you don’t even think about it, you just instinctively do it? The theory is this… the thing that people thank you for… well… that’s your passion, your area of expertise, the thing that makes you special, makes you valued and… it is your life purpose. It may not come to you right away, but it will. Pay attention. Do some retrospective thinking about this. And see what comes up for you. I can guarantee, it will start to define who you are, at your core, and the path your career and your life should be taking. Your ultimate purpose. The gold at the end of the rainbow. You just have to look for it and you’ll see the sun reflecting off of it. For me, it took a few weeks of really letting this question sink it. I started writing about it, to define it more. Then I began polishing the ideas, really understanding them and clarifying them, until I came up with the answer. And from there, my new career began to show itself… the ideas ran wild, I couldn’t learn enough, I couldn’t stop talking about it and it fueled me in ways I had not experienced before. All, with one simple question. So, tell me, what do people thank you for?